Why?
by wicked-nachos-09
Summary: Claire had become rather protective of K-Mart in the past months. The gang wants to know why. Missing scene in Extinction in the desert. Claire x K-Mart


In the months that they had been on the move, avoiding big cities and killing virus-infected people, the people that were in charge of things, like Mikey, Carlos, LJ and even Betty had noticed that Claire had become very protective of K-Mart. When Alice showed up in the middle of the desert out near Vegas and she joined their convoy, the woman had become very interested why, when she too noticed things between the two. The group of friends were expecting K-Mart to hook up with Mikey and Claire with Carlos because there was definite tension there, sexual tension. This they weren't expecting and then they were sure they had read the tensions wrongly. Sure they were all like a family, a family that was quickly decreasing in members seeing as they buried seven more earlier – this convoy being all any of them had left. The group of fugitives found out the night that Alice had killed all of the crows.

They were sitting around one of the many fires, Mikey on one side of K-Mart and Claire on the other, Carlos was next to her who was next Alice and Chase, Betty and LJ finished off their little circle. Thankfully, their caravan nurse, Betty, had gotten away from all the crows with minor scratches and a few bruises. In time, each of them had gone to their respective beds in their vehicles and Claire went walkabouts in the abandoned motel they had parked next to. K-Mart had gone to bed about half an hour ago and all Claire wanted was to be asleep next to the young girl. Little did the leader of the pack know, the young survivor had crept out of the hummer and followed her into the motel. From a distance in the shadows of the fuel tanker, Alice was watching them both.

"You okay, Claire?" asked K-Mart, the shadows covering half of her face as she stood in front of Claire with her arms around herself. Sure it was the desert, and deserts can get very hot, but she was freezing. The brunette was sitting on the receptionist's desk, her gun in her hands.

"I will be," she replied. More than anyone, Claire had taken all the deaths, of the people who asked her to keep them safe, personally. She felt as if she failed them.

"Come here, baby girl," said K-Mart, pulling the older girl into a hug. She pulled back to look her in the eye. "You know, I love you right?" Mikey chose that moment to creep up to Alice and watch the scene unfold, a camera was in his hand being played back to the group in his van.

"I love you, too," half-smiled Claire, brushing her lips to K-Marts, bringing butterflies into the girls stomach. "You should go get some sleep." Alice was waving her hand in front of Mikey's face as he stared open mouthed at the girls in the motel. A small noise broke the silence between them and Alice had no idea if it was a word or just a sound.

K-Mart removed her arms from around Claire and crossed them over her chest. "You can't keep doing this. Depriving yourself of sleep because you're scared of your dreams. I don't want you to get hurt because you're half-asleep. You could get infected. I could lose you and I don't want that to happen."

The boys in the van sat there as shocked as Mikey. Betty smiled and went back to the medic truck to get some sleep. Alice was a little shocked but nowhere as near as much as the boys.

Tears were beginning to cloud K-Mart's vision as she pleaded with Claire to go to the hummer and go to sleep. Ever since the virus had taken Claire's brother and she had been forced to kill him, Claire never slept. When she formed the convoy and the first group of people were killed, Claire never slept. Nightmares plagued her mind and the people they buried today would add to that. That was until they found K-Mart in a K-Mart hiding in the garden supplies section. She hit Carlos pretty hard with a shovel in the head.

"I'm not scared of my dreams, you know that. It's my fault they're dead. I promised to help protect them and now more than half of them are dead," whispered Claire, breaking down on the desk. K-Mart wrapped her arms around her again.

"It's not your fault, babe. It's not your fault. You did everything you could to save them," whispered the girl into Claire's ear. Rubbing her back always helped to soothe Claire and calm her down, especially when it was K-Mart who was doing the rubbing. "It'll be okay. Why don't you come back to the hummer with me?"

"I'll meet you there," said Claire, wiping her tears so she could see K-Mart properly. "I'm going to check the perimeter first. I'll be there in a minute, I promise." Her ears strained to hear any noises as the boys all rushed to get out of Mikey's van and back to their own and as the tech boy sprinted back through the sand to his car, turning off the camera. Claire let out a laugh as K-Mart left and went to the truck to check the perimeter on Mikey's cameras.

"Hey, Claire," said the blonde man, who was very obviously avoiding eye contact. "Perimeter's all clear."

"Good. Hey, tell me something. Did you enjoy the show?" asked Claire, a smirk on her lips.

"What show? TV got cancelled remember?" replied Mikey, knowing that he was so busted.

"Oh, you know the one you were videotaping about five minutes ago. You know, me and K-Mart in the motel," explained Claire, a grin taking over for her smirk. "The one that was getting played back to the van."

Mikey's head fell forward to his chest as he sighed in defeat. "Busted?"

"Busted. Now you know and so does the gang. Promise me, you'll look after her if anything happens to me."

"I promise," said Mikey. He noticed how serious she was being and decided not to push it.

"Thank you," she said, leaving to go to the hummer.

"Told you I'd be here in a minute," announced Claire as she opened the back passenger door, only to find the younger girl fast asleep with her head over the back of the seat. The older girl crawled in and pulled the blanket over the two of them as she pulled K-Mart into her arms and slammed the door shut.


End file.
